Groundhog Day: Shubenacadie Sam predicts long winter ahead

Nova Scotia's celebrity groundhog, Shubenacadie Sam, is predicting a long, cold winter ahead.

The large rodent emerged briefly from her enclosure at a wildlife park north of Halifax this morning -- Groundhog Day -- and according to her handler, she saw her shadow.

As the door to her pint-sized barn opened, Sam poked her nose outside, sniffed a nearby carrot and promptly returned inside to avoid the brisk -12 C weather.

Folklore has it that if a groundhog sees its shadow on Feb. 2, it will retreat into its burrow, heralding six more weeks of wintry weather. No shadow is said to foretell the early arrival of spring-like temperatures.

For the second year in a row, the event at the park was closed to spectators and was broadcast live on Facebook to comply with the province's COVID-19 health protection orders.

Living on the East Coast, Shubenacadie Sam is typically the first groundhog in North America to issue a long-term forecast.

Meanwhile, Ontario's most famous groundhog, Wiarton Willie, was expected to offer a seasonal prediction to a virtual audience just before 8 a.m. EST.

Last year, Willie was nowhere to be seen in a video marking Groundhog Day. Local officials called an early spring after throwing a fur hat into the air -- a move they said recalled the tradition's first edition in Wiarton more than 60 years ago.

Months later, the town of South Bruce Peninsula, which includes Wiarton, publicly acknowledged that Willie had died from an infection caused by an abscessed tooth.

At the time, Mayor Janice Jackson said the albino woodchuck had died "quite a while before the last Groundhog Day," but she didn't specify when.

And Willie isn't the only famous groundhog with identity issues.

A spokesperson for the Shubenacadie Wildlife Park -- a 45-minute drive north of Halifax -- confirmed Wednesday that Sam -- or is that Samantha? -- is a female groundhog that has held the position as chief prognosticator for a while.

"This is not new, although this may be the first year that this was highlighted," the spokesperson said in a text before the online ceremony began about 30 minutes after sunrise. The park's website, however, still refers to Sam as a male.

Meanwhile in the United States, Punxsutawney Phil was set to make his prediction shortly after Shubenacadie Sam. Unlike the Canadian event, a crowd was on hand to witness the event at Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, Pa., but the American groundhog's prediction was also livestreamed.

The Groundhog Day ritual may have something to do with Feb. 2 landing midway between winter solstice and spring equinox, but no one knows for sure.

In medieval Europe, farmers believed that if hedgehogs emerged from their burrows to catch insects on Feb. 2, that was a sure sign of an early spring.

However, when Europeans settled in eastern North America, the groundhog was substituted for the hedgehog.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 2, 2022